WHAT DO CHEMISTRY TEACHERS DO?

Teaching is more than just the delivery of knowledge, as every teacher knows. Chemistry teachers instruct children in secondary education schools all over the country. They must teach theory as well as practical uses of world. Though the main job of a chemistry teacher is to teach chemistry, the actual job may involve a lot more than that. Many teachers not only teach the subject, but also conduct research into their chosen fields. In order to teach most effectively a chemistry teacher develops lesson plans, which not only include lectures and homework, but also labs and demonstrations. Based on the information presented in class, along with the information presented in the directed readings, the teacher creates tests to make sure the students are properly learning the material.

Typically, teachers spend 40 to 50 percent of their time in the classroom actually teaching. While this may make it seem like teachers have a great deal of free time on their hands, other duties often keep them very busy. The rest of the time is spent in devising lesson plans, holding classes, grading papers and other assigned duties.

To become a chemistry teacher, the prospective candidate not only needs to take a variety of sciences, and specifically chemistry, classes as part of the university curriculum, but the teacher-to-be also must meet his/her state's teaching requirements. Each country has its own teacher certification requirements but in general the rules are very much the same. There is a specific listing of courses required for chemistry education majors with a special emphasis on the methods of teaching the subject as well as the foundations of psychology and pedagogics. The prospective teachers should also acquire some practical skills and experience during their training at school as part of the curriculum.

There is a world-wide shortage of chemistry teachers. It is hard to keep science teachers. Many young specialists leave schools after the compulsory three years of work according to the state legislation. This is because people with science training can get jobs that pay more outside of teaching. There are some ways to solve the problem. The state should offer better salaries, improve teachers’ working conditions, and provide teachers with more mentoring. There’s also a strong need for a funding system that gives extra support to teachers who choose to work in hard-to-staff schools.

 

Comprehension Aspect

 

Ex. 1. Match the following words on the left with the appropriate synonyms on the right:

teach	a brunch of knowledge, esp. the one studied at school, college, or university
skills	the action or process of educating or of being educated; also: a stage of such a process
subject	the ability to use one's knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance
lesson	the courses offered by an educational institution; a set of courses constituting an area of specialization
education	to cause to know something; to guide the studies of smb.; to impart the knowledge
curriculum	a short period of time when people are taught about a particular subject or taught how to do a particular activity

 

Ex. 2. Some of the following sentences can be incorrect. Find the mistakes and correct them.

1. Making a decision in favour of a teaching career can be an unsophisticated and easy-going undertaking.

2. As a teacher you may have a very carefully planned day with fixed times and scheduled routine tasks.

3. A good teacher should be a tolerant and knowledgeable person.

4. Teaching chemistry at school mostly means to present the theoretical information to the pupils in a clear and well-defined form.

5. To become a chemistry teacher one needs a formal education, specifically science subjects, as well as subjects and practical training in pedagogics and psychology.

 

Ex.  3. Complete the following passage using the words from the box.

 

subjects, part, become, educational, school, models, teachers, way, job, teach

There is an old expression that says, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach”. Whoever believes in this statement obviously has never had to spend an afternoon trying to (1)… kids, let alone for an entire school year. (2)… fulfill an important role in society and they have the potential to play an important (3) … in any child’s upbringing. If you are looking for advice on how to (4) … a teacher you should know that the job (and training) can be quite demanding. Not everyone can (or should) become a teacher and it’s important to do some self-reflection to see if the (5)… might be for you. The world will always need good teachers, especially those who aren’t happy to settle for simply meeting (6)… requirements. Teachers can also be role (7)… and guides to help kids to navigate through the often frustrating task of growing up. As a teacher, it will be your responsibility to successfully teach them the core (8) …subjects so that they can move away from the hang-up of possibly poor scholastic performance, and move towards finding their (9) … through the other aspects of being in (10)….

Ex. 4. In small groups or with your group-mate:

- Discuss your motivation for choosing the teaching career. Work out and name Top 10 reasons for it.

- Suggest the measures which could promote the retention of chemistry teachers and improve the conditions of teaching chemistry at school.

- Debate how universities could motivate students to pursue a career in teaching sciences.

 

Case study

1. Can you think of any interconnections between the above mentioned directions of chemistry?

2. Specify positive and negative effects of development of the above mentioned directions of chemistry on:

- research scientists

- environment

- humanity and its further development

3. Which direction do you consider to be the most highly developed in Belarus? Why?

4. Which sphere of chemistry can “boast” of having the greatest number of achievements made by our Belarusian chemists?

UNIT II

PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY

TEXT A

Pre-Reading Task

Before reading the text consider if you know and can explain the following words and collocations:

 

remedies screening combinatorial chemistry metabolite fungi species marine-derived agents

antibiotics hormones sulfa drugs pre-clinical trials bryostatine-like compounds toxin

 

DRUG DISCOVERY

In the past most drugs have been discovered either by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or by serendipitous discovery. A new approach has been developed to understand how disease and infection are controlled at the molecular and physiological level and to target specific entities based on this knowledge.

The process of drug discovery involves the identification of candidates, synthesis, characterization, screening, and assays for therapeutic efficacy. Once a compound has shown its value in these tests, it will begin the process of drug development prior to clinical trials.

Despite advances in technology and understanding of biological systems, drug discovery is still a lengthy, expensive, difficult, and inefficient process with low rate of new therapeutic discovery.

Structure of Drugs

Despite the rise of combinatorial chemistry as an integral part of lead discovery process, natural products still play a major role as starting material for drug discovery. Natural products may be useful as a source of new chemical structures for modern techniques of development of antibacterial therapies. Despite the implied potential, only a fraction of Earth's living species has been tested for bioactivity.

Prior to Paracelsus, the vast majority of traditionally used crude drugs in Western medicine were plant-derived extracts. This has resulted in a pool of information about the potential of plant species to be used as an important source of starting material for drug discovery. A different set of metabolites is sometimes produced in the different anatomical parts of the plant (e.g. root, leaves and flower), and botanical knowledge is crucial also for the correct identification of bioactive plant materials.

Also microbes are the main source of antimicrobial drugs. Streptomyces species have been a source of antibiotics. The classical example of an antibiotic discovered as a defense mechanism against another microbe is the discovery of penicillin in bacterial cultures contaminated by Penicillium fungi in 1928.

It's interesting that marine environments are potential sources for new bioactive agents. However, it was 2004 when the first marine-derived drug was approved. The cone snail toxin Ziconotide, also known as Prialt, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat severe neuropathic pain. Several other marine-derived agents are now in clinical trials for indications such as cancer, anti-inflammatory use and pain. One class of these agents are bryostatin-like compounds under investigation as anti-cancer therapy.

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